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Xkcd: Gravity

22 points by picture 4y ago

NKosmatos 4y ago
Once again, a great interactive drawing/comic/illustration from Randall Munroe!!!
butz 4y ago
I appreciate the effort put into this interaction, but I quickly lose control of spaceship, it starts spinning and makes my head hurt. Bumping off planets makes situation even worse. Is there any accessible way to explore this Xkcd galaxy?
- cratermoon 4y ago
  As Tom Lehrer would say, carefully and D - d - d - d-d - d - patiently
- anakaine 4y ago
  I managed to bury mine inside the planet and couldn't escape
- xg15 4y ago
  It's hard. Things that worked for me: - use the deskop version, not the mobile version. - remember that you are controlling acceleration, not speed - use the stars in the background to judge your current speed and location. Then you can turn the ship into the opposite direction to slow down and get back (some) control - it shows the closest planets/asteroids/etc as small circles near your spaceship. you can use those to find interesting locations. But even following all of those, I still find it difficult to control as well. The bumping off doesn't make it easier. I always needed several tries to slow down enough so I could read a speech bubble. There also seems to be some effect where the ship automatically reorients itself with the thrusters towards a planet, I guess to allow for a controlled landing. But in practice, it's usually still so fast when it does this that it will result in steering away from the planet. Still haven't figured out how to counter that very well.
kzrdude 4y ago
I found a black hole. Very hard to approach. It made it look like there were multiple black holes next to each other, but it might also have been a glitch due to very high speed or something. Some asteriods and planets seem to repel the ship. Not sure why. There's a frozen moon (probably Europa because of the jokes they tell there about not being able to compete in Eurovision) where you can fly in under the frozen sea.. just to note another easter egg. If one happens to sink into the center of that moon there is another one (book club) :)

22 points by picture 4y ago

Once again, a great interactive drawing/comic/illustration from Randall Munroe!!!

butz 4y ago

I appreciate the effort put into this interaction, but I quickly lose control of spaceship, it starts spinning and makes my head hurt. Bumping off planets makes situation even worse. Is there any accessible way to explore this Xkcd galaxy?

cratermoon 4y ago
As Tom Lehrer would say, carefully and D - d - d - d-d - d - patiently
anakaine 4y ago
I managed to bury mine inside the planet and couldn't escape
xg15 4y ago
It's hard. Things that worked for me: - use the deskop version, not the mobile version. - remember that you are controlling acceleration, not speed - use the stars in the background to judge your current speed and location. Then you can turn the ship into the opposite direction to slow down and get back (some) control - it shows the closest planets/asteroids/etc as small circles near your spaceship. you can use those to find interesting locations. But even following all of those, I still find it difficult to control as well. The bumping off doesn't make it easier. I always needed several tries to slow down enough so I could read a speech bubble. There also seems to be some effect where the ship automatically reorients itself with the thrusters towards a planet, I guess to allow for a controlled landing. But in practice, it's usually still so fast when it does this that it will result in steering away from the planet. Still haven't figured out how to counter that very well.

kzrdude 4y ago

I found a black hole. Very hard to approach. It made it look like there were multiple black holes next to each other, but it might also have been a glitch due to very high speed or something. Some asteriods and planets seem to repel the ship. Not sure why. There's a frozen moon (probably Europa because of the jokes they tell there about not being able to compete in Eurovision) where you can fly in under the frozen sea.. just to note another easter egg. If one happens to sink into the center of that moon there is another one (book club) :)